Runescape is a MMORPG, which is a very long abbreviation for the even longer “Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game”. It is one of the most popular free games around. You can get an army of gamers all over the world to play this game with you. Just go to the website, pick a server, log in, and in a few seconds you'll be in the fantasy world of Runescape. (Note: There usually is a simple registration required for joining in the play.)
Gameplay
Runescape is completely open ended, so you can pick what you want to be. In other words, you will be seeing everything, from lightly armored archers to bulky, mithril covered warriors. Start out with nothing more than a weak wooden shield, bronze shortsword, and a few magic runes, but soon, you'll develop into archer, warrior, wizard, or witch. If you ever need help, just go to a town center and ask for it. There will be lots of people waiting to help, buy from, sell to, and even assassinate others. Don't like fighting the computer controlled monsters? No problem. Just go into the wilderness, where the Runescape laws are nonexistent. There you can fight against anyone in whichever way.
Graphics and Audio
Though the graphics are 3D, they are definitely not the best. Shadows don't exist, and not much texturing is done. Don't worry though, because Runescape has new updates every month. This game has been constantly worked on and is constantly improving. The audio is pretty good, with a good variety of songs to collect when exploring. Entering the deep jungle, you will instantly collect a song full of jungle drums and other things of the likes. Don't like the music of your current area? Simple. Just go to your music tab, switch the music selection from automatic to manual, and select your own song. Sometimes, you need music so bad, that you take off all your important gear and store them in the bank, and then go exploring the zombie filled swamps and giant filled caves to look for music.
Special Feature
The best feature of Runescape is that when you are near any civilized town, you will always have lots of other players in your area, fighting their own creatures, selling their wares, and buying food for their next journey. You can easily make friends. It actually feels real to know that they are just some other gamers somewhere else on the globe. Of course, if your friends in real life also play Runescape, you can obviously meet up with them and go fighting together-- killing goblins, scorpions, giants, and tons of other strange creatures in this MMORPG.
Bottom Line
For kids, this game is extremely addictive, as they can make their own virtual ego in this fantasy/medieval world, and can make friends, kill monsters, complete quests, and tons of other fun things. Most other MMORPGs of this sort never have more than 100 thousand players on the game at a time. Runescape, on most good days, will have well over that number.
